New Products

Okay, friends, admit it. Like your humble editor, you've closeted a secret
wish to work at Pixar ever since Toy Story first came out. Should you
ever beat me to that dream job creating animated films or special effects,
you'll feel right at home with the omnipresent Linux applications that
bring everything to life. A case in point is Autodesk's new Linux port
of Discreet Inferno 6.5, an interactive design system for high-resolution
visual effects. Discreet Inferno has been used for high-speed compositing
and advanced graphics applications in films and television shows, such
as Charlie & the Chocolate Factory,
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy,
CSI New York, Stargate:
Atlantis and many others. Interestingly (but
not surprisingly), Autodesk first created a Linux version of Discreet
Inferno just for Japan, which was such a blockbuster that it was released
worldwide. In addition, according to a VP at Autodesk, the Discreet
Inferno system on the Linux workstation “can offer up to five times the
performance (per CPU) of previous SGI platforms such as the Onyx
2.”
So, good people of Autodesk, now that Linux has handily rocked your world,
there's this little program called AutoCAD....

Just say “ippimail”—the name of a new and free e-mail
service—five
times fast and you'll be hooked too. If the name alone doesn't grab you,
the ippimail gang hopes that saving the world will. Here's how it
works. ippimail's mission is to get as many people as possible to join
its free, Hotmail-esque e-mail service, which utilizes 100% open-source
technology. The more eyeballs it gets, the more banner advertising
it can support. The firm then donates 45% of its profits to worthy
charities and an additional 10% to the Open Source Development community.
Though most of the charities are on its home turf in the United Kingdom,
many work globally, and ippimail pledges to support charities wherever
its users are. In addition, ippimail sees this project as a clever way
to evangelize about the benefits of open source to the broader public.
It's motto “feelgood email” seems to hit the nail right on the head.

It's official, folks—Linux has gone Joe Sixpack. That's because our
beloved OS has infiltrated the world of NASCAR autoracing. Embedded Linux
is the horsepower under the hood of Kangaroo.TV, a new device available
for rental at NASCAR events that gives spectators a more entertaining
autoracing experience. Marketed as NASCAR NEXTEL FanView, this wireless,
handheld gadget provides racing fans a slew of event information,
including ten live MPEG-4 video feeds (replays, highlights and in-car
views), 64 AC3 audio feeds (driver-to-pit conversations and commentary)
and a plethora of real-time stats. Kangaroo.TV utilized Trolltech's
Qtopia as its application platform and GUI. You can give Kangaroo.TV
a whirl for $50 US a day, coming to a racetrack near you.

If your itch involves PC/104 single-board computers that boot quickly and
can handle extreme heat and cold, Micro/sys' new SBC1491-ET might be the
scratch. This mid-range, full-featured PC/104 (3.55 x 3.775) computer
has a sub-five-second boot-up time and will operate in the temperature range
of –40°C to +85°C. The SBC1491-ET offers standard PC features
such as SVGA, dual serial ports and 10BASE-T Ethernet support, as well as
64MB of RAM, up to 576MB solid-state Flash and full AT-compatibility.
Micro/sys claims that this product is ideal “for applications not
requiring Pentium speed” and offers PC compatibility while generating
less heat, using less power and costing less. The processor is an STPC
Atlas with operating speeds of 120MHz to 133MHz. Software development
packages for the SBC1491-ET include Linux, Windows CE, VxWorks and DOS.
Ahoy, Antarctica or bust!

Comments

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I like AutoCAD. It is very convenient and really makes the work move faster. I remember I've downloaded it at shared files SE http://www.sharedshares.com . Several options didn't work, but in general I liked it.